The Great Pumpkin
by sanctum-c
Summary: Tifa is Aeris's blind date; she tells Aeris of her embarrassing childhood beliefs...


_Quick thank you to Sak for all your reviews!_

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Date in Nibelheim; Aeris arrived a little early to find her blind date already there. "Tifa Lockhart?"

Tifa smiled and waved. "Aeris, right?"

"Right." Aeris sat beside her at the bar. "What are you drinking?"

Tifa called the barman over.

A blind date; Aeris's first. Some of these newspaper organised occasions went well. Extremely well. There remained the infamous account of the pair who crashed a house party and lost their underwear in the process. Time would tell if this occasion with Tifa wound up a fraction as successful. Plus worth noting that despite the fame and seeming glory of the pair-up, the couple hadn't had a date since and were not seeing each other. Time to take up their mantle?

A few drinks in and Tifa noted the decorations up and around the bar; plastic bats, paper pumpkins with lights inside, fake cobweb, 'spooky' songs playing on the jukebox. Aeris grinned. "This is my absolute favourite holiday."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Absolutely. For one thing it- Well, it is commercialised. But not in the same way Spring Equinox or Winter Solstice or Parent's Day or, or even birthdays are." Tifa met her gaze as she sipped at her drink. "You don't get cards though I would send those out if they did. I could make some..." She fidgeted. "But yeah; while there's decorations and we have to buy candy to give to the trick or treaters, its more fun and while people get hung up on it early, its... different to Winter Solstice. I mean, its not like there's foods people only eat this time of year. Okay, so the pumpkin-themed flavors are good and-" She blinked. "Wait, what was the question?"

Tifa laughed. A few drinks later- "Really am glad you do like All Hallow's." Tifa toyed with one of the paper pumpkin lanterns. "Can I tell you something really weird I used to do?"

"Of course." Aeris leant towards her.

Nervous glance around her, nervous grin. Tifa brushed a strand of hair over one ear. "I used to-" She took a swig of her drink. "-mix-up I think is the best way of describing it? Or I was just a weird kid. I used to think there was this Great Pumpkin who would come and give kids presents if they were good. Kind of like at Winter Solstice, but it was this great huge pumpkin. And everyone thought I was weird. Obviously. They all went out trick or treating and I was sat in the pumpkin patch – where else would I wait for her? – and watched and waited."

"And sadly she never arrived?"

"Sadly." Tifa laughed and took another sip.

An eccentric notion, but weirdly intriguing – and assuredly different from any kind of pedestrian date. "I think we should give it another shot. Right now."

And that was how Aeris and Tifa wound up picking their way across a field of pumpkins outside of Nibelheim. "At least the sky's clear."

"True." Tifa crossed her arms. "Going to be colder though."

"We have coats." Aeris paused and cast about. "Okay, is this far enough in?"

"Used to wait right over there-" She pointed.

"Really?"

"No. All the rows look the same!" Tifa laughed. "Oh, had too much to drink. First date with someone and we've wound up out here in a pumpkin patch, reliving my weird childhood fantasies. Sorry."

"Hey, this was my idea. And you never know you might get lucky-" Aeris pursed her lips. Tifa still stared up into the sky. "Might be lucky enough and the Great Pumpkin will finally make herself known."

"If she's real."

Aeris swatted at her arm. "Gotta have faith or she'll never arrive." Another glance around. The field stretched far into the darkness, the twinkling stars clear above them. Distant revels of parties and trick or treaters in the main town. This was at least something different. "Okay. Should we hide, should we be quiet or-?"

"I don't know. She never appeared remember." Tifa bit her lip. "This is silly. Come on; let's go back and get another drink."

"No! We're going to do this." Aeris sat in between the rows of pumpkins.

"We're going to get cold."

"I'll keep you warm." Aeris patted the ground beside her. "Come on." A sigh from Tifa, a smile and she sat. Close enough to press lightly against her. So far so good. Some more murmured conversation between them, the night drawing on. Aeris fumbled to her other-side and out of Tifa's eyeline. Extract a pumpkin from its stalk, sticky sap all over her fingers. Shame she did not have a pen or something. "Tiiiiiiifffffaaaaaaaaa. Tiiiiiiiiiiiifffaaaaaaaaaa!" Aeris affected a 'scary' ghost voice.

Tifa leaned further away from her looking quizzical. "Whaaaaaaat?"

Aeris moved her extracted pumpkin around in front, bobbing it up and down in the air. "I am here! It is I! The Great Pumpkin!"

"The Great Pumpkin!" Tifa clutched her cheeks with both hands, her voice thoroughly insincere. "I can't believe you're finally here."

"Yeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssss." What else had Tifa said about her childhood belief? "And I have a present for yoooooooooooooou. For never doubting I was reeeeeeeealllllll."

A lifted eyebrow from Tifa. "Oh?" She glanced at Aeris who could not repress a smile.

"Yessssss. A kiss from a beautiful womaaaaaaaaaa-" Aeris elongated the vowel, leaning towards Tifa.

Tifa laughed, cutting her off. "So dorky." But she closed the distance and kissed Aeris. The pumpkin fell to the ground somewhere beside them but it scarcely mattered. The Great Pumpkin's gift was far more important.


End file.
